He's a Hero
by KittyGonzales
Summary: They find that crappy town.  Set after my story "The Ghosts."
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

This was the young pilot's first job, and he was anxious to keep it. The pay was fantastic, the ship was nice, and it was legal. He had a friend in flight school that had fallen in with criminals less than a week after graduating. He hoped he'd never have to resort to that sort of thing. He was a model citizen, he had never broken a single law in his entire life-he didn't even open his sister's mail without permission-and he wasn't planning on changing that. He didn't drink much or smoke, he'd never been in a fight, he wasn't terribly political, but he was honest. The Alliance would have been proud to have such a resident among its ranks, if it had ever noticed his existence.

He didn't have anything bad to say about the crew, or anything much to say at all, for that matter. He kept to the helm except when he went to eat, and they mostly ignored him. That part of the job was a real problem for him, who was generally a friendly sort of guy, but it was only his first week, he couldn't expect to be best friends with the crew already. He decided he should just wait and see how things went before he did anything stupid. He just wished they'd stop calling him "Pilot."

"Pilot!" the captain shouted.

"I have a name, you know," he called back.

"Now is not the time!" she shouted urgently. Looking at her, the pilot saw that her eyes were round as coins and she was clearly panicking, "Reavers are headed this way!"

A woman nearby screamed, and soon the whole town was in an uproar. "We should evacuate the town!" he said.

"We don't have room, we don't have time!" the captain said.

"There's plenty of room in the Cargo Bay."

"But the cargo bay is full of the _cargo_!"

"You would leave this entire town to the Reavers to make a few credits?" he asked, disgusted.

"Not a few credits. _500,000 _credits!"

"But these are people!"

"Listen, pilot, just get into the bridge, that's an order!"

Seeing nothing else to do, he punched her in the face. Perhaps it was the shock of being sucker-punched by the mild-mannered pilot, or perhaps he was a better fighter than he'd guessed, but she hit the ground, unconscious.

"Everybody, get on the ship, and hurry. We need to leave now!" People rushed to the ship or ran to their homes to grab possessions or get family members, and the pilot found himself forced to direct them all. "Someone help me with these crates! Just dump them. Not those, they're food. No point getting you all to safety if you're just gonna starve to death. Come on, everyone in! There are bedrooms upstairs, we can fit maybe thirty people in each of those. Don't stand around the crates, stand on them! We need to fit the entire town on this ship, this is no time to worry about personal space! We can fit a bunch of people in the dining room and kitchen. Is that everyone? You last group can come with me to the bridge."

Miraculously, he managed to fit them all on the ship, although they were packed in rather tightly, but no one complained. They all knew what waited back at their homes.

As he started the ship, he caught sight of just what he was facing, and he was awestruck. He had heard of Reavers, of course, and over the past few weeks begun to believe in them, but he'd never actually encountered them.

"Wo de ma!" The Reaver ship was a huge, ugly craft, covered with war paint, and were those _human carcasses?_ on the prow. He resisted the urge to be sick, and renewed starting up the ship with more urgency. He got them into the air a moment before the Reavers hit the ground. He knew they wouldn't remain in the empty village for long, and urged the craft as fast as it would go. He had never noticed it before, but the ship was extraordinarily slow, and he wanted to shout at it.

"They're following us!" someone shrieked.

"I noticed," he said calmly, checking the Cortex for a map. There was an asteroid belt a few minutes away. Perfect.

"What are you doing?" someone shouted when they saw it, "You're going to get us all killed!"

"If you could all calm down, I would really appreciate it," he said, not raising his voice.

"You're a maniac!"

"Would you just shut up for a second!" he said, his nerves getting the better of him. He had never been in an asteroid field in real life before. He'd done it on a simulator in school, and he'd only crashed once, but that he didn't find that thought very reassuring as he soared towards certain doom. If even a tiny rock managed to pierce the hull, they were all dead. "Let's see what this boat can do."

There was a moment of silence as he gripped the wheel tightly, broken by the sound of the captain waking up and finding her ship packed and her cargo gone.

"Pilot, you_ liu kou shui de bioa zi he hou zi de ben er zi_!" she shouted, and kept shouting insults for over ten minutes, sucking in deep breaths between curses.

"Such a lovely person," the pilot said amiably. Then he turned the ship sharply to avoid smashing into the huge mass of rock that was hurtling towards them. He distantly heard people shouting and vomiting behind him, but he was too intent on his task to spare them any thought. Just another test, he told himself. You have to pass this to graduate. Simple as that.

A huge cheer erupted all around him, yanking him from his reverie. Looking in his rearview, he saw that Reaver ship smashed by a huge asteroid, killing everyone onboard. For one moment, he felt horrible. He had just killed an entire ship full of people._ Reavers aren't people,_ he reminded himself. But the guilt was still there.

The rest of the ship was ecstatic as he pulled the ship out of the belt as easily as he'd entered it. They were all thanking him, praising him; he was sure they'd have lifted him onto their shoulders if he hadn't been preoccupied with flying the boat.

"What's your name?" someone shouted over the commotion.

"Call me Wash," Hoban Washburne replied with a smile.


	2. Chapter 2

"Captain!" Kaylee called from the engine room, "Can you come here?" Mal was worried by her tone of voice.

"What is it?"

"Well, remember last time we went planetside?"

"Half an hour ago? I vaguely recall that."

"And you sent me out with that big long list of things to buy."

"Don't tell me you forgot the food?"

"Oh, no, I got food."

"An important part for the engine?"

"Believe me, I got engine parts."

"Well, then what are you so worried about?"

"I-I forgot the fuel."

"What!"

"We have enough to last us maybe fifteen minutes if we're careful."

"Wash!" Mal called, running to the bridge, "Change course!"

"Where to?"

"Anywhere! The nearest planet or moon or fueling station you can find."

"Hmm…" Wash said, checking the Cortex, "There's a small moon not too far from here, not exactly an ideal location, but-"

"How far?"

"Maybe ten, fifteen minutes away."

"Sounds good."

"What's going on?" Mei asked, appearing in the doorway.

"We're low on fuel, have to make an emergency landing,"

"What happens if we run out of gas before we can land?"

"If we run out in space, we just stop moving, hope someone picks us up before we starve. If we run out in atmo, we crash."

"But that's not going to happen." Wash interjected.

"What makes you say that?"

"Optimism and/or denial. Anyway, there's a moon pretty close, we should be able to reach it in time. Right?" He looked up at Mal.

"Probably," he said, "In any case, you should get back to the kitchen, dinner's in half an hour."

She left the bridge, muttering what sounded like "I just had to choose cook, didn't I?"

Fifteen minutes later, the small backwater moon loomed ahead of them. When they had nearly touched down, the ship gave a shudder and stopped, and they plummeted to the ground. It was lucky they were only 10 feet up.

"Is everyone okay?" Wash called. He heard shouting voices in the hallway.

"'Go back to the kitchen' you said! Any other brilliant ideas, Mal?" Mei yelled.

"Look, I said I'm sorry!"

"What happened?" Wash asked.

"Mei was cooking during the crash and a knife landed near her head."

"Not 'near,' Mal! An inch. An _inch_ from my face!"

"I'm sorry! What else can I say?"

"I almost died! All you can say is "I'm sorry?'"

"What more do you want?"

"I- um… good point. But I'm still angry, gorramit!"

"Oh my gosh!" Mal sighed, "Can we talk about this another time? Right now we need to buy some fuel so we can get off this rock."

"That might be kinda hard." Wash said.

"Why?"

"Well, we can't check the map with no electricity. I parked pretty close to town, but without the map there's no way to tell which direction town is."

"But we should be able to see it, right? You didn't land that far, did you?"

"It's a pretty hilly moon, and probably a small town. We could be fifty yards away and still miss it."

"Well, the shuttles still have fuel. We can split up into two groups and look for it. How 'bout you and Zoe in one shuttle and me and Jayne in the other?"

"Can I come?" Mei asked.

"Fine. You can come with me and Jayne."

As they headed towards the shuttles, they ran into Kaylee and Simon.

"Where 'ya going?" Kaylee asked brightly.

"To look for the town. Apparently we can't just walk."

"Can I come?"

"Okay, you're with Wash and Zoe."

"If Kaylee's going, I want to." Simon said.

"Fine! For God's sake, people, we're buying gas, not going to the zoo!"

"The zoo?"

"I'm not sure why, but I keep thinking about kangaroos."

"You have an interesting mind."

* * *

><p>"We found the town," Mal said into the intercom, "It's about and eighth of a mile East of Serenity."<p>

"We'll be there in a few minutes," Wash replied.

The shuttle hit the ground with a bump- there was a reason Mal had hired a pilot- and they all climbed out, stretching. Their limbs were stiff from a flight that had taken entirely too long.

The town was bigger than they'd expected, and mostly empty. There were a few people in the streets, and they glanced at them quickly before returning to their business.

"Excuse me, we ran out of fuel for our ship, do you know where we could buy some?" Mal asked one of them.

"Sorry, I can't help you. But I know another ship bought some a few weeks ago, so we definitely have a place for that."

"Okay, thanks."

Mei noticed something. There was a statue in the middle of town made of what looked like bronze. The houses were little more then shacks and the roads were unpaved, so why would they waste so much money on a statue?

"I'm sorry, but what is that statue of?"

"Why, Wash, of course! The hero of our town!"

"_Wash?_" They ran up to it, and it was indeed a sculpture of their pilot.

"Uh, Wash?" Mal asked over the intercom, "Are you sure you've never been here before?"


	3. Chapter 3

"What the-" was Wash's reaction when he saw the strange effigy. "I guess I must'a been here before. I don't remember it though. Why…?"

"I just can't win!" Simon shouted.

"Um, excuse me. Why is there a statue of me?" Wash asked a young woman, or began to ask, for the moment she looked at him, she screamed.

"OH MY GOD!" She stared at him. "Your- its- oh my- WASH!" A crowd began to gather.

"It _is _him!"

"I can't believe it!"

"It really is _Wash!_"

"Um, hi?" he said meekly, and the crowd simply stared. "Any particular reason there's a statue of me?"

"You are Wash, right?"

"Yeah…"

"And you don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Why don't you step inside and we'll talk about."

"Okay." Wash looked truly bewildered as she led them inside a building, which turned out to be a bar. She bought them a round of drinks before she started,

"A few years back, Reavers were headed…" she began, and told them the whole (rather short) story.

"I remember that now! Geez, that was a while wasn't it? I must've been right out of college. Weren't you the one who called me a maniac?"

"Well you did nearly get us all killed," she said, blushing, "I'm Amita, by the way. Amita Carol."

"Can I call you Amy?"

"Sure!" She looked positively delighted.

"So, um, do I get a song?"

"A what?"

"Well, do you have any songs about me?"

"No, sorry. We can write you a song!" she added quickly.

"It just wouldn't be the same."

"I win!" Jayne yelled, throwing up his hands. Wash wondered how much he possibly could have drunk in the two minutes they'd been there.

"So, what brings you to our crappy little town?"

"We ran outta fuel. You don't happen to have any we could buy?"

Amy bit her lip. "Well, we normally do, but a ship came by a little while ago and bought all we had. There's a new shipment coming in, though. Should be here in about a month."

"_A month?_" Wash actually spit out his drink at that. "Sorry, I- _a month?_" Mal simply looked too stunned to speak.

"But in the meantime, you can stay here. You're the hero of this town, people here will do anything for you!"

"But still, a whole month… I haven't stayed on land that long since… I don't even know. I guess since I was here last."

"A little time planetside will do you some good!" she said encouragingly.

"I think I need some fresh air." Wash said, and fled the bar quickly. Outside, a young girl who was walking past stopped and stared. She couldn't have been more than six or seven years old.

"Hello there, little one!" he said with a smile. She at gazed him, wide-eyed and terrified. "What's your name?" he asked kindly.

"Jenny," she muttered sheepishly.

"That's a nice name. I'm Wash."

"I knew who you were." She still talked barely above a whisper. Then she gave a little smile and mumbled something at her feet.

"What was that?" Wash asked. Behind him, Simon came out of the tavern.

"Are you okay?" he asked, but Wash silenced him by raising a hand.

"What did you say, Jenny?"

"I named my hamster after you, Mr. Wash."

"Oh, come on!" Simon said, and Wash and Jenny stared at him.

"Sorry. I'll just-go tell Zoe you're okay-and, yeah," he said, embarrassed. Wash turned back to the girl.

"Don't call me 'Mr. Wash.' It's just Wash."

"Wash…" she said experimentally, "That's what I call my hamster. He's not Mr. Wash."

"Yeah, treat me just like your hamster."

"Can I-" she covered her mouth with her hands and giggled, "Can I pet your hair?"

"Sure, if you want." He leaned forward and she tentatively put a hand on his hair, snapping it back quickly and giggling more than ever.

"Honey," Zoe came out, looking a bit surprised to see her husband being pet by a six-year-old, "are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine. Me and Jenny here were just getting to know each other."

"Okay. Well, whenever you want to come in…" She sounded a bit confused, and Wash was sure she was thinking of the same thing he was. The old argument: She wanted a child, he didn't. It wasn't so much that he didn't want kids; he just didn't think they could handle it. And, okay, he had never really _loved_ kids. They could be so annoying, and he'd never really seen the 'cute.' But suddenly, it was as if a door had opened in his heart, and he couldn't close it.

* * *

><p>"There you are! Where were you?" Mal said once Wash reentered the bar.<p>

"Right outside."

"Well, now that our little hero is back, why don't Zoe and I go see if we can get this whole mess straightened out. We can leave Wash to his adoring fans, and you three," he addressed Mei, Simon and Kaylee, "Make sure he doesn't get too drunk. I'm hopefully gonna need a pilot soon."

Zoe pursed her lips at the idea of leaving Wash with a crowd of 'adoring' young women, who were already batting their eyelashes and inching closer to him, but she sighed and rose from her stool to join Mal. Amy replaced her almost immediately.

"Let me buy you another drink," she said. The bartender produced a tasty little cocktail with a miniature umbrella in it. Wash fiddled with it while Amy talked. He wasn't really listening; he was more absorbed in the workings of his tiny parasol.

"That's so shiny! It opens and closes, just like a real umbrella! Look, look, sunny…storming! Nice and shiny… pouring!" He opened and closed it to his heart's content, examining it from different angles.

"So, uh," Amita began, sounding slightly nervous, "You got a girlfriend?"

"Nope," replied Wash, without looking up from the little paper umbrella, "But I got a wife. Does that count?"

Amy sunk a fraction. "Who? Wait, let me guess… the red-head?"

"Who, Mei? No, she's just my infirmary buddy. Of course, neither of us are injured anymore, but the friendship still stands."

"Then, the really round-eyed one with the brown hair?"

"Kaylee or Zoe? 'Cause Zoe's hair is dark brown and the eye thing is slightly vague."

"The happy one."

"No. She's married to Simon."

"So, it's the really…intense-looking one that just left?"

"Yep! That's her."

"She seemed a bit… cold. I really can't see the two of you together."

"A lot of people say that. But believe me, I love Zoe. So, you know, I'm very flattered, but-"

"Just forget I asked."

"Already forgotten," he said, and he resumed playing with his cocktail's ornament.

* * *

><p>"No luck." Mal said, shaking droplets of water over the counter and shivering, "They say there's no way to speed up the shipment. And it is raining like <em>crazy<em> out there!"

"Really? It was sunny when I was out there."

"That happens a lot out here. Storms can start in a second. Just part of the fun of being a backwater moon." Amy said bitterly.

"Could be worse. At least you have clean air."

"I suppose," she sighed, "So you'll be staying here a while?"

"Looks like," Mal said with a grimness appropriate for funerals and wars.

"Well, then, we should get you guys a place to stay. There's a big house at the edge of town that's empty. Lucky jerks got enough money to leave this dump, and no one's had enough to buy it."

"There are three more people on our ship. Come to think of it, they're probably wondering what's taking so long."

"Why don't I show it to you now, so you can get situated?"

"Okay." As they stepped outside, they were blasted by a barrage of wind and rain.

"Ugh," Zoe sighed, and Wash, with the air of a magician conjuring a rabbit from a hat, pulled out the tiny paper parasol. He stood on tiptoe, trying to hold it above Zoe's head. They both laughed, and there was no doubt in either of their minds that they had married the right people.


	4. Chapter 4

They were put up in a large house on the edge of town, twice the size of the next biggest home. Still, there were ten of them and only five bedrooms, so they had to share rooms. Simon, Kaylee, and River all stayed in one room, as Simon wouldn't be separated from his sister or his wife. Wash and Zoe shared a room, as did Sheppard Book and Jayne, and Mei and Inara. Mal got a room to himself.

They started going insane after around the third day. Mal would pace for ages and mutter to himself. Jayne was always in a foul mood, and his temper was worse than usual. Mei mostly stayed in bed and stared at the ceiling, and Inara was much quicker to lose her patience, so they had had more than a few shouting matches, or shouting and apathy matches, since Mei mostly remained in her daze and didn't reply. Zoe became jumpy and prone to attacking anything that moved. Even Wash was becoming tense and snappy. Kaylee would either start shouting or burst into tears at least twice a day, and Simon became more sarcastic than ever. It was hard to tell with River, but even she seemed to be crazier than usual. The Sheppard alone remained unaffected.

Wash was sure he would have completely lost it if it weren't for Jenny. She had taken to following him everywhere, and had gotten over her previous shyness. Instead, she babbled nonstop about anything that came to mind, and they were all seven-year-old things, cute and innocent and good. He occasionally played with his dinosaurs with her, and she was very good at it, though the plots did become a tad more unpredictable. Once, the dinosaurs had to team up with ninjas to defeat the evil space pirates (or spirates, as Wash called them.) Wash had particularly loved that game, as it managed to incorporate three of his favorite things.

Unfortunately, it made being at 'home' with the irritable rest of crew even harder to stand. It was the fifth day that he snapped.

"Let's all get drunk!" he shouted, after Jayne reduced Kaylee to tears for the second time in the hour, and Mal nearly broke his toe trying to kick a whole in the wall. "All of us should get very, very drunk! Otherwise, you can't blame me if I kill someone."

"I wouldn't mind a drink right now," Mal said, hopping on one foot and swearing sporadically.

"Everyone!" Wash called, "You're getting loaded whether you like it or not! Now come on!"

"Maybe River shouldn't…" Simon said.

"I'm old enough," she replied stubbornly, "And I didn't get to get drunk on my birthday! You came home too drunk to speak when you turned 20! *" It was odd that she was most normal when there was a promise of alcohol.

"And, honestly, if she calls me a wolf one more time I might have to hit her." Mal added. Perhaps because of her title 'albatross,' she had recently begun telling the crew what animals they were: Mal was a wolf, Jayne was a hyena, Zoe was a leopard, Inara was a peacock, Mei was a hummingbird, Sheppard Book was an ox, Kaylee was a squirrel, and Simon was a flying fish (a fish out of water.) It took her a while to decide on one for Wash. She considered lemur or dog before settling on otter.

It was early in the afternoon, so the bar was mostly empty. "Can I get ten beers?" Wash asked the bartender, and he produced them quickly. They all watched as River looked suspiciously at her drink before taking a sip. She made a face.

"Well?"

"Tastes like…" she paused, as though searching for a way to put it delicately, "go se mixed with xiong mao niao."

Wash ordered the same thing he had gotten the first day. "Try this," he said, handing it to her, "You know it's gotta be good when it's got an umbrella!"

She took a sip and smiled, "Much better."

What followed that was the most fun any of them had in a long time. ** Simon had started, like always, a bit stiff and proper, but he got good and drunk after that.

"You know, Wash, I get it," he said, his words more than a little slurred, "You saved an entire town from a slow and horrible death. You, sir, deserve that statue.

"Everybody!" he called, "This guy- this is a…a good guy! He's all…good, and statue-y. I approve!

"You, on the other hand," he said to some random woman who he seemed to think was Jayne, "You just dropped a box a' money! Anyone can do that! If you're so great, why did you drop it? Can't even hold on to a gorram box, you stupid 'hero.' Hero, my butt…" he grumbled.

"Shenme?" he asked to the poor woman he'd confronted.

After a while, Jayne started up "the Hero of Canton," and the rest of the crew sang along. Eventually, even the very confused villagers began to join in for a rousing chorus of:

"He stole from the rich and he gave to the poor,

Stood up to the man and he gave him what for,

Our love for him now ain't hard to explain,

The hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne,"

They sung that for over an hour, forgetting lines and repeating verses, and crooning it all in a drunken slur. When it finally ended, Wash proposed a toast.

"To Jayne!" he called, he called, lifting his drink and spilling most of it on the floor, "To Canton! To whatever the Hell crappy town this is!" he said, then giggled, then passed out.

* * *

><p>End Of Chapter 4<p>

* * *

><p>* I figure in 600 or however many years in the future, the drinking age will have changed a bit. Also, I think River was 17 during the show, and then Serenity was a year or so later, and then 'The Ghosts' was a year after that, and this is a while after that. So, River's 20 now. Our little girl is all grown up.<p>

** Don't drink, kids.

* * *

><p>Sorry this took so long. I wasn't sure where to go with this, and I've been busy lately. Yesterday was a big marching band event that took all night, so I couldn't go on fanfiction. And the marching band thing was awful! The band director said it was the worst he's ever the football field. It was more mud than field! Plus, I had to go to the bathroom since before the pregame show, but I didn't know where it was, and... it was not fun. Sorry, I kind of rambled there.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Zoe woke with a start to find herself with her face flat on the counter of the bar. Her head was pounding, her stomach was unsettled, and it tasted like something had died in her mouth over the course of the night. The rest of the crew was in a similar state, moaning at their hangovers or still passed out. River looked simply ghastly, and Zoe tried to think of a joke about her very first hangover, but that was more Wash's area. Speaking of which, where was Wash? She looked around, expecting to find him sleeping like a little drunken angel and snoring fit to raise the dead. Instead, she couldn't find him anywhere.

"Kaylee," she said, since Kaylee was the closest and seemed more or less all right, "have you seen Wash?"

"Not since last night."

"Do you remember if he left last night?"

"My memory from last night's a little blurry," she said, bringing a hand to her forehead and wincing, " I remember… he said summing about Jayne, and then he giggled all sweet-like. You know how Wash giggles." She smiled blearily.

"Honey," said Simon, "Is there anything you want to tell me about the two of you?"

"It's nothin' like-"

"Ahem," Zoe interrupted, "so neither of you know where he went?"

"Nope."

"Well, I'll check back at the house. If you see Wash, tell him to go there."

"You got it."

Zoe left without another word. For someone so calm and imperturbable, she could panic pretty easily. She knew it was stupid to get so worried about such a tiny thing, but when it came to Wash, she was stupid. The more her reason told her he was fine, the more her fear told her otherwise.

When she reached the house, the door opened with a rusty squeak. "Hello," she called, "Wash?" the empty house did not reply.

* * *

><p>Wash awoke with a start to find himself lying in grass and covered with dew. His head was pounding, his stomach was unsettled, and it tasted like several things had died in his mouth over the course of night. He sat up, grimacing at the pain in his head. He was in a small clearing in the middle of a forest. He vaguely remembered flying over a forest in the shuttle when he'd first come here.<p>

He tried to recall what exactly had happened the night before. He remembered going to the bar, and River's first drink. He sort of remembered 'The Hero of Canton,' and then waking up on the bar floor. The townspeople were unwilling to let go of their guest of honor and, befuddled as they were, dumped water on his face to wake him up. He'd had a few drinks, then insisted on going home, and staggered off into the night. He remembered how the town was suddenly completely alien and the way the darkness played tricks on his eyes. He couldn't exactly remember how he'd ended up in that spot, but it wasn't hard to guess.

The trees were massive and their branches thick, so that besides the occasional shafts of brilliant sunlight that found their way through the canopy, it was as dark as night. Wash was soaked from sleeping in the wet grass, and he was freezing. He missed Serenity more than ever.

"Zoe," he called, but the silent forest did not reply.


	6. Chapter 6

Wash had only been in the woods a few times, back when he and Zoe would go out. The memories of those blissful afternoons made him ache with loneliness. No matter how hard he tried to focus on the wildlife he'd seen and how it had survived, all he could remember was the way Zoe's eyes had glittered and how she still hadn't smiled freely, which made her sly, quick grins all the more exciting. Of course, that made sense, since that was probably all he was paying attention to at the time. Back in the early days of their relationship, he'd done a lot less talking and a lot more staring. For one brief moment, the memories overwhelmed him and all he could see was the two of them strolling through the woods together.

"Tell me all about the forest," Zoe said, spreading her arms to the woodland around them.

"I don't know much about them. This is the first time I've actually seen one in person."

"I thought you said you weren't raised on a ship."

"I said I lived on a planet, I never said it was a particularly nice planet.

Wash returned to the present, but desperately missed the memory. What had Zoe said after that? It was probably something cool and witty, said in that nerves-of-steel, calm-but-tough voice of hers. And perhaps she'd smiled, her teeth shining bright white for just a second before her retreating back behind her teeth. God, he missed her. Whenever he explained about this, she would probably yell at him for getting so drunk and wandering off, but her relief would spill over into one of those swift grins. She'd be happy to see him again.

Poor Zo. She was probably worried sick right now. He wished he could tell her he was alright.

Wait, he was _alright? _ How was he alright? He was stranded in the middle of nowhere with no way to get home, no idea where home was. It could be feet away and he'd never know with the thickness of the woods.

Well, if he was close, they'd hear him if he shouted. He screamed, at the top of his voice, the first thing that came to mind, "ZOE!" He waited, but heard nothing in reply. He tried again. "ZOE! ANYONE! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, I'M LOST IN THE WOODS AND I NEED HELP. IT'S WASH, BY THE WAY." He didn't hear voices or any sign that someone was coming.

He told himself not to worry. He was the idol of the town, they would send out search parties for him. All he had to do was sit tight.

While survival stories were never his favorite books, Wash had read a few, and they were all very clear on one point: The first step to survival is to stop hoping to get rescued. The sooner you gave up that delusion, the sooner you could start adapting. That's what they said.

But, gorramit, it was hard! It was true, it would probably help him. But even if he survived years there, he wouldn't be able to stand life alone on the ground. The stories might say his greatest needs were food and water, but he knew his greatest needs were company and the stars.

Well, even if he wasn't going to give up hope, it wouldn't hurt to find some food and water. On the edge of the clearing were little bright red flowers, which he gathered to help mark where he went. As he walked, he dropped a flower every now and then, always within sight of the last.

He had been walking for over an hour, and his throat was parched and his stomach empty, when he came across a stream. It was very shallow and slow moving and the water looked disgusting, but he was too thirsty to care. He cupped his hands and brought scoop after scoop of icy water to his lips. Then he contemplated food. A few meters away from the bank there was a little cluster of berry bushes. Another thing the books- and his common sense –had been very clear about was that you should never eat unfamiliar berries. Wash thought he recognized them as blackberries, but it had been a long time since he'd seen any, so he wasn't sure. He wondered if it was worth the risk.

A growl from his stomach answered the question for him, and he stuffed his face with the sweet, sweet fruit. When he was done, he laid down in the grass, very full. He wondered if it was worth it to build a shelter, since he would probably be found very soon. He knew what the books would say, and decided it wouldn't hurt.

Building a shelter turned out to be much harder than he'd expected. He had no tools of any sort. All that he had was his clothes and a coin he'd found in his pocket. He tried building with stones, but he couldn't find enough. He tried building with the clay at the riverbank, but it wouldn't hold its shape. He tried breaking branches off the trees, but that was very hard without any sort of axe or knife, and when he'd gotten a reasonable amount, he realized he wasn't sure what to do with them. When night came, he just curled into a ball on the ground and covered himself with leaves to keep warm.

The next day, he started again on his shelter. He tried a number of different designs, but most of them fell over with a look or were impossible to build. In the end, he had a rickety cone-shaped structure with four main branches cemented into the mud and smaller ones leaning against them, with twigs and mud woven into the cracks. It was very flimsy and barely big enough for him to fit in, and by the end of the day he wished he'd just settled for the pile of leaves.

Before he fell asleep in his tiny lean-to, he realized that two whole days had passed. The work had mostly kept his mind off it, but he had actually spent two whole days in the wilderness.

As the days turned into weeks, he began to develop a routine. Every morning, when he woke up, he would shout, in case there was someone nearby. Then he would have a small breakfast, usually of blackberries or nectarines from the tree not too far away. He never ate meat. He hadn't strictly been a vegetarian in the past, but there was a big difference between eating a piece of chicken and hunting down and killing an animal with your bare hands. Besides, even if he did manage to somehow catch an animal with no weapons, he didn't have any way to cook it. He spent many a restless hour trying to unlock the secrets of fire, striking rocks against each other, rubbing sticks together until his hands were sore, but he was unsuccessful. At around noon, he would shout some more. In the afternoon, he would do general things like inspect his shelter, work on the fire problem, or talk to himself. He made a deliberate decision to talk to himself. It gave the illusion of company, and kept him in practice. He was determined that when someone found him, they would find him as he always, in good spirits. His jokes were rarely funny, and the talking usually only made the loneliness more apparent, but he kept it up nonetheless. He also began compiling a list of all the things he missed:

* He missed Zoe

*He missed the quiet hum of the engine.

*He missed the way the stars shone like diamonds and the lights on the console glittered like jewels, all the rubies and emeralds he could ever want.

*He missed Zoe

*He missed the plumbing. They had never had anything too fancy, like showers, but they'd had sinks and toilets. He really missed the toilets.

*He missed the brightness of Kaylee's smile.

*He missed Zoe.

*He missed people of any sort. If Niska walked by, Wash would probably kiss him. Seeing anyone would be a relief at this point.

*He missed so many things that it hurt to think about, and he tried to push the thoughts away.

By the third week, he felt like he had been in the woods for an eternity

* * *

><p>"It's finally happened," Mal declared, "The fuel finally came."<p>

"I bet Fanty and Mingo are wondering where we are with the goods." Jayne growled.

"Yeah, I don't exactly look forward to meeting the a month late, but I'm sure they'll see reason."

"And if they don't?"

"Well, we'll bring River along. They've seen her in action, I doubt they'll be anxious to make her mad."

"We aren't leaving yet, are we?" Zoe asked.

"Why not?"

"We can't leave without Wash."

"Zoe, we've been through this-"

"What about the woods? We didn't search them that well, he could very easily be there!"

"And how do you suggest he survived the past month?"

"He's resourceful!"

"Zoe, just-"

"Just one more day. Just give me one more day to look."

"What happens if you get lost, too?"

Mei appeared, having heard the argument from her room. "Here," she said, producing one of the trackers she'd had with her when she came, "take this."

"Thank you, Mei." She sounded like she sincerely meant it.

"Stay safe."

Zoe trekked through the forest for hours, and the longer she searched, the more discouraged she became. She was more miserable then she had been in a long time when she came upon a bright red flower. There was nothing entirely odd about that, since there were many of them growing in the wood, but it wasn't growing, it had been plucked. Just a bit farther on, there was another. After that, there was another and another, all strategically placed. A trail. She race down it, not daring to hope.

She hardly recognized him when she saw him. He was filthy, his hair was long-ish and matted, and he had a small beard beginning to grow. He had lost a lot of weight. She would have thought she had somehow found some other lost soul in the woods, when she noticed a piece of the shirt that wasn't covered in dirt or mud. It was far too bright to be sensible. She still wasn't entirely convinced until he turned around and looked at her. He smiled in a way that only he could, and she rushed up to him. Before they knew it, they were both sobbing and hugging each other tightly. They never wanted to let go.


	7. Chapter 7

The living room of the house was not a happy place. Somehow, in other rooms, they could forget about it, but in the living room, the silence was practically shouting in their faces. They couldn't forget it, they couldn't ignore it. They just fled to another room or learned to live with it.

Only Mal and Mei stayed. Mei felt it was best if she stayed to give reports to anyone who would ask, trying to ignore the images of a downtrodden Zoe searching desperately for something she wouldn't find. Or what if she did find him? Starved to death or killed by wolves or- _Stop it,_ she told herself, then, somewhat desperately, _He isn't dead! Wash can't be dead. There can't be a world with no more smiling pilot flying _Serenity_, playing with those stupid toys. I can't have lost my infirmary buddy! No, Wash is alive, and Zoe will find him and we'll all live happily ever after. _ Tears pricked her eyes, but she ignored them and steadied herself._ Everything will be fine._ For a former psychiatrist, she was surprisingly well versed in the art of denial.

Mal just couldn't find the will to leave the room. So, he stayed with the silence and the tension and the suffering. They sat with him on the couch, not doing anything, but there. Always there. Mal sat with his head in his hands.

"She's stopped," Mei said. Mal said nothing. He told himself that she could have found Wash, that she was stopping to greet him. He tried to imagine it, but he just couldn't. It was much easier to picture Zoe giving up, sitting on a rock, and crying. It was an odd image. Zoe didn't cry. But it was real. Much more real than his desperate fantasy.

"You never know," Mei said, "I mean, she was right, he _is _resourceful. He could have just camped out in the woods. You never know." She sounded desperate and close to tears. Mal still didn't reply. What could he say?

"She's heading back," Mei said after a while, "Slowly, but she's heading back." Of course she was slow, Mal thought. Who could blame her? She'd just lost her husband for a second time.

"I shouldn't have let her look. It will only make things worse. Now there won't be any hope."

"What else could you do? She would feel worse thinking he was still out there and we'd abandoned him. And you know…" she sighed, "You never know."

"Well, how do you think-"

"Stop it!" Mei shouted, "I don't want to think about it! I need hope right now, Mal. Right now hope and denial are the only things keeping me sane!." She let out a little sob, but suppressed it quickly. Mal felt like he should do something to comfort her, but he was never very good at that sort of thing.

Mei composed herself with a deep breath and a little sniff. "I'll start on dinner. She'll probably be hungry."

Mei started chopping potatoes in the tiny kitchen attached to the living room, keeping one eye on the tracker. When she saw the little dot indicating Zoe approaching the house, she expected a stony face and a sigh. She expected the silence in the room to grow heavier. She didn't expect a smile, and she certainly didn't expect Wash.

Mei squealed and threw her arms around him. Mal was, as always, reserved. He gave a vague "Good to see you back," and smiled, but there was no way to tell what he was thinking. When the others came, they all reacted in their own ways, they all smiled and hugged him and welcomed him back.

Simon switched to doctor mode. He said Wash was suffering from this and that and gave him some meds.

River said, "Back to the diamond stars and jeweled console where you belong," making Wash wonder again just how much she knew.

* * *

><p>Wash wanted desperately to fly Serenity again, but Simon made it quite clear that that wasn't going to happen. So, he made up for lost time with Zoe. He played with his dinosaurs. He started working out with Jayne and Sheppard Book to regain some of his strength.<p>

After a while, things returned to normal. He resumed his duties as pilot. He looked more or less like his old self. The rest of the crew got used to his presence and assured themselves that he hadn't turned feral or savage in the forest. But something was plaguing him, and had been for a while, since before he'd gotten lost. He approached the subject with Zoe one night while they were in bed.

"You know how we always used to argue about having kids, because it was horribly, incredibly stupid, but you wanted kids."

"Yes?"

"Well… I want kids, too! Life's too short."

Zoe didn't seem the least bit surprised at his sudden change of heart. "Of course."

"Oh," Wash was a bit surprised at her firmness, "Well, then, I guess that's settled."

* * *

><p>*The End*<p>

* * *

><p>That's all for this story. I don't have any very detailed ideas for future stories, but I'm sure I'll write more. Writing Firefly fanfictions is so much fun, and waiting for reviews and such makes life much more interesting and a <em>lot <em>more frustrating.


End file.
